Just Another Taipei Day

October 28, 2006

My plan for today was to go to the “Roots and Shoots Animal Parade” in Taipei with Amy, an English teacher from Iowa who I met at a party last weekend, and her boyfriend. The parade was to raise awareness about protecting Taiwan’s animals, and Jane Goodall was there. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite make it to the parade but we did get to see most of Dr. Goodall’s speech. It wasn’t anything new or spectacular, but there are some people that make you feel special just for having stood within a few inches of them. Afterwards we speculated about where she was flying off to next and what it would be like to live a life like hers when you’re in your 70’s.

As I waited for the bus back to Luzhou I found myself, as usual, surrounded by chanting people in red shirts. If you’re not in Taiwan you probably don’t know about the current events here, but for over a month now people have been protesting daily in front of the train station in an effort to force the president, Chen Shui-bian, to resign. Chen has survived two recall votes in parliament. At first the protests were 24/7, but for the last week or so they’ve only been at night. They chant “A-bian xia tai!”, step down A-bian! (president’s nickname). Anyway, the whole point of this explanation was just to say that tonight they were chanting “xia tai xia tai” in rhythm to “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana and it amused me greatly.

On the way home I fought off claustrophobic panic by counting people on the 24-seat bus. 61.

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One comment

Hey there,
Just got caught up with your life! Thank goodness for blogs and such. I just finished striking a show that has kept me busy for the past month. But Taiping sounds exciting! The experience sounds really familiar too. I can just picture myself in your place two years ago in Moscow, not knowing whether I hated the place or loved it. But I didn’t have to deal with children!
Anyway, hope all is still well. Now that my evenings are more or less free, I’ll stay more up to date on your adventures. I’ll live vicariously through you.